Summer Days!

Someone has been here this summer and how she loves to play peek-a-boo!

Went camping in northern Michigan with lot's of our family. We all hiked into one of our most "favorite, favorite and I do mean favorite" lakes for fishing, reading, picnicking, and basking in the beauty of Mother Nature...Wakely Lake. The early group hiked in and hit the fishing with the sunrise. The late group came in a few hours later with a picnic and all kinds of fun doings!

My daughter, Kristen, was with the early group. Here she is holding up a little pan fish. For all you fishermen and women, this is an artificial lures only lake----you can only hike into the lake (no cars, trucks, etc) and no motorized boats. So, you wade, paddle your canoe or belly boat it out into the lake.
K----looking good in my wadders!

Jenna and my son figuring out something on the camera. Don't you just love Spencer's makeshift doo---I believe it was to keep the sun off his neck, and to help keep mosquito's and black flies away.

Someone had a ball exploring all the wonders around her...and under our favorite shade tree's.

She loved discovering the beautiful flowers and then taking a closer look....picking the flowers apart....she was very busy for a very long time. This is hard work for a girl who just turned "one".

Hubby came up with a nice wide mouth bass catch!

My pretty mom enjoying everything. She is a delight ----and you would never have known she had a terrible and I do mean terrible gash on her leg that took us to the ER late one night. Many stitches and pain meds.....i must confess...it was so bad i saw her bone. I did not like it one bit. It was awful and she was so brave.

Fishermen....L to R, my super son-in-law, my husband, and my dad----dad was born to fish and has fished his entire life. He taught my son-in-law how to fly fish a few years ago...and actually, he taught my husband many, many, many years ago how to fly fish. We love to fish.

My son was so sad that he had left his ID at home. He could not get a fishing license without his ID. So, what-cha' gonna do? He had fun. He and Alyson have taken pictures like this for awhile, now. So funny how big Spencer is and how it makes Alyson look so small.

Can you hear the peace and quiet? Can you feel the gently breeze? Can you see the dragonflies and butterflies lighting gracefully here and their? How about the loons? How I love hearing the loons.

A great adventure and lovely rest at OUR Wakely Lake.

What has everyone been doing this summer? As you can tell, we have been so very busy with lots of company and extra activities. So much to share and fun pictures ahead....tis a good ole summer time! xoxo

Camp..Somehow I survived.

Our stake had girls camp two weeks ago and I finally feel like I'm back to normal life ha! It's been so nice not to have to worry about meetings and getting bandanas and paint and decorate our flag and get beads and registration forms blah blah.. it was quite the adventure. Our stake drives up to Kolob in Utah 4 hours from Vegas so it was a big trip. They had us stop in St. George to visit the temple...

It's a beautiful building I could have stayed there longer taking pictures on the grounds.

Our kitchen and dining room and campfire pit. The tents are farther back to the right and the leader tent behind me down the hill a little bit. There were a lot of flies and mosquitoes, somehow luckily I came out of it unscathed.

Our illustrious YW President.

Our girls had skit night so we had plenty of characters..

Some hobos..

Mean Girls..

Two "old" grandmas..

And a nerd or two.


They also had rappelling, canoeing, zip-lining, flying squirrel, archery and target shooting. Yep, we were busy.

Camp Flag

A little friend. There were also snakes. One of them I almost trampled getting back to our campsite!

Getting harnessed for the flying squirrel. I had never heard of this before.. One girl is on this end and.....

Everyone else on the other end of the rope. It's tossed over a tree branch in the middle and some fandangled pulleys and whatnot so that the girl goes shooting into the air as the group pulls on the rope...

It was crazy and so fun to watch.

Phew! But I'm glad it's all over with and to be back at home with this cute face..

M helping Dad fix the shower plug. Best friends :)


Happy Weekend!

Happy Times!!

It's summer. Time for sunglasses and lunch with my dad.

....and with my mom.

One last walk with dad before he goes back to work.

In my Mom's books....

Huh?

I love books of any size or shape.

Happy girl, for sure!

Great kick off to summer spending time with Jenna and her family out west. They will travel out to Michigan this summer, as well. Can barely wait. xoxo

p.s. What summer plans are ahead for you all?

Gone Fishing! And other tall tales....

It is that time of year! My husband and I took an early wedding anniversary trip up north to our favorite, favorite and I do really mean, favorite camping, hiking, fishing, biking, etc. place. We are not only celebrating our 27th anniversary this year, but, we are also celebrating 20 great years of camping in these woods. Love it! Let's head to the campground...ok?

Lots of trucks and trailers in this particular shot from the upper side of the campground. We prefer the lower side of the campground that is loaded with tree's and wildflowers....a little more private, and near a biking trail.
We unloaded, set up our camp, had a snack and headed for the woods. How I love these woods and all the memories over the past 20 years. So, park your car, or bike, and let's head across the bridge.

Now, think...have you forgotten anything?...water bottle, camera, bug spray....check, check and check. Carry on.

Keep on going. Up above the forest floor and heading to the Visitor's Center. We are almost their.

Hello, old friend. What a happy and welcoming sight. We enter and chat with a few park rangers, look at the new displays, check out the quilt that is sewn every late winter, early spring and raffled off at summers end, sit for a while at the bird windows (huge windows across the back side of the visitors center) and enjoy watching the birds come to many different bird feeders.

And, what do I spy? The BLACK SQUIRREL!!! I am a winner. Every year...for 20 years of camping, we have a contest in our family to see who can spot a black squirrel first. Well, in all fairness....hubby was asking a question at the info desk and I snuck out the back of the visitors center to see if I could possibly see a black squirrel and...well, there you go. Candy bar of choice for me. Lucky day!

Off we go into the woods. Here we are at the logging museum....life from the logging days can be seen in each of these buildings. For years (too many years to count) I have taken a small slip of paper with a "vinegar pie" recipe on it from the museum, logging camp, kitchen. I finally made the recipe this past year and have to say, it was pretty good.

Don't know how the loggers survived the hard winters and all the trees that they chopped and hauled and floated down the rivers to their destinations.

On with our walk, out of the logging camp and up and around the bend and down the hill ---and up again to the chapel in the woods. We have seen a bride and groom, here and their through the years, going or coming out of the chapel and woods.

Rough storms this year brought down a lot of large trees. We counted 5 downed trees, close to the chapel. So glad a tree did not land on the chapel.

Making our way through the woods....taking pictures, talking and swatting a mosquito or two or three...ok, or more.

Forest floor with new seedlings growing and spreading. Have to see if they can get enough light to grow. The forest is so dense that you can easily walk through the forest when it is raining and not get soaked. We use to do this with our children when they were little....rain was not a problem. We would just go into the woods and hike the trails and stay fairly dry.

My husband loves to look up into these particular old trees. It is one of his favorite spots in the forest.

More trail.

More beautiful woods.

Just love all the sounds and smells of the forest. My mind goes back to all my tree climbing days as a child....when I was sure I wanted to build a house in a tree.

Maybe I need one of those bumper stickers that says, "Have you hugged a tree today?"

Any favorite hiking or biking trails for you? Any campers out their? I do love Mother Nature and all her beauty. Can't wait to go up north again. We had a blast.

Enjoy the day. We have gone from a gentle spring into summer over night. Saturday was 92 with humidity....that is rare for this time of year...or for us to reach into the 90's does not happen very often all summer long. Whew! Happy times ahead!!! xo